


Those left behind

by AliaMael



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, It's TWEWY /shrugs/, Mention of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27610306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliaMael/pseuds/AliaMael
Summary: Neku learned a lot about his new friends during the Game. Now that Eri is added to the mix, it's only natural that he has to learn about her too.For once, "expand your world" surprisingly means understanding that the world can be way smaller than you thought.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	Those left behind

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a headcanon from [@reokantasu](https://twitter.com/reokantasu) on Twitter. Thanks for the inspiration and letting me play with your idea!  
> (Original tweet in the end notes because it spoils the whole fic ;) )

Including Eri into the group had not been exactly _easy_. But all things considered, it had gone better than Neku would have thought. While she didn't remember Shiki being _dead_ , she had a confused need to do everything she could to make her friend happier, like she still felt guilty of _something_. So of course she accepted the others immediately.

(Shiki felt bad about it. She didn't want Eri to feel forced to do anything, especially when it was so painfully obvious she couldn't explain why she was acting that way. Shiki took it anyway, because it would have destroyed her fragile balance even more to have conflict between the people who meant the most to her.)

Fortunately, after a few weeks of awkwardness, things slowly stabilized. Eri was… well, enthusiastic and bubbly and extroverted, but also… nice. Neku had to admit she fitted with them all, even if the one big secret they kept from her was sometimes straining the easy familiarity.

They often ended up at her place. It was bigger than Neku's, and Shiki's, and of course the Bitos didn't exactly want to bring friends home with how messy their relationship with their parents was. Eri's parents seemed content to let them be, never really looking at what they were doing but still seeming somehow happy to have them.

Neku privately thought it was weird. He could have understood if Eri had been reclusive and asocial (like him before the Game…), but she already had tons of friends, so her having some more didn't seem to deserve that kind of warm welcome. He didn't dare question it, though. He didn't want to create problems just because he couldn't get people.

Things were… good. Shiki and Eri's creative mindset had infected everyone to some degree, and now it was not uncommon for Neku to help Eri with sketches, for Rhyme to discuss colors and help Shiki with the simpler stitches, and for Beat to make precious observations about the practicality of the outfits. Planning most often happened in Eri's room, but when they got to the cutting and sewing they relocated to the living room which gave them more space.

And then, there was the storage.

The first time Eri mentioned the room, Neku barely noticed it. Shiki was looking for more thread, Eri said it was in storage, Shiki got up to get it, and that was all. But as time passed, Neku realized that "storage" was a room of which the door was kept closed, and it was _always_ Shiki who got there. Even when it was Eri who needed something.

Then one day Shiki brought him to the room, needing help with too many bags of cloth at once, and Neku understood many things. Even if it was not obvious at first glance because of the numerous things stored everywhere, some details hinted at it: it had been _someone_ 's room before. And it didn't look like whoever it was had left in a carefully planned move. There were still posters on the wall, half hidden behind furniture.

He just helped Shiki find what they were looking for and didn't ask, even if she probably knew. Now the larger place made sense, as did the fact that the whole family seemed more comfortable with more presences than just their own.

He wondered how Eri would react to the existence of the UG, because he didn't think they would keep it a secret from her forever.

(When they finally explained, she cried and screamed and _clung_ for dear life… to Shiki, obviously, but also to every one of them. That day cemented the group like nothing else could have.)

Eri was brilliant in school, with grades rivaled by Rhyme only. Sometimes, though, she failed a test, and it was always math. She said she hated math, and Neku couldn't blame her. Many people hated math, and most students had at least one topic they couldn't grasp. (Neku's was chemistry. Beat had generally low grades, but specifically despised literature.) Eri's parents never scolded her for her low grades, but they were generally more accepting toward her anyway, so it didn't seem out of character.

Except that one day, while the squad was out on a shopping trip, a trio of teenagers decided to be obnoxiously stupid, mocking and insulting until Eri snapped. And when Neku would have probably said something like "go fuck yourself", Eri… well…

"Go derive yourself to the null factor, you yoctograms!"

Neku froze. Shiki and Beat didn't see him, too busy trying to separate Eri and the three idiots before things got nasty, but Rhyme threw him a perplex glance. He shook himself and went to help, but couldn't forget how Eri had just gone full Grim Heaper on them for a few seconds.

And so, when he finally got Shiki alone, he already knew what she would probably answer him.

"Shiki? That's stupid but I just realized I have no clue what Eri's family name is…"  
"It's Minamimoto. Why?"

He forced himself to shrug.

"Just wondering, that's all."

He was fully prepared to change topics when he realized he didn't want to start hiding things from Shiki. Not anymore.

"No, actually that's not all…"  
"I'm listening," Shiki gently said.

Neku braced himself.

"She… the storage room…" 

He shook his head, tried again.

"OK, I don't know how to put it. Who was Sho for her? Her brother?"

Shiki stared, gaping.

"How… how do you _know_ about Sho?"  
"We met in the UG. Remember when I told you about the Grim Heaper? That's him. I never used his name but that's him."

Shiki became pale as a sheet and Neku pulled her to a chair.

"Oh my _god_ …" she finally whispered.

Neku didn't know what to add, how to comfort her.

"Yeah, he was her brother…" she eventually said. "He died in an accident a few years ago. She…"  
"She still misses him," Neku completed.

Shiki nodded.

"Last time I saw him, he was crushed under a mountain of trash… I don't think he could have made it."  
"You already explained that, yeah…"  
"I… don't think we should tell her," Neku tried.

Shiki offered him a sad smile.

"See? Now you understand why some lies are necessary between friends…"

That was a lesson he would have preferred learning in other ways.

And then, a few weeks later, a heap of junk appeared in a corner not far from Hachiko. Beat stared. Neku stared. Eri stared _hard_. Shiki whispered to Neku:

"I thought _he_ was Erased?"  
"I thought so too!" he answered in the same tone.

Rhyme seemed to consider the pile with curiosity or even interest, but she was still the one to question Eri.

"Eri, are you OK?"  
"I… don't know," Eri said.

Shiki gently grabbed her arm to bring her toward the pile and made her sit down on what appeared to be a very old TV. Eri looked at the ground for a few seconds, tears slowly began trailing down her cheeks, and when Shiki hugged her she broke down in ugly sobs.

"What's wrong?" Beat asked, a bit panicked.  
"He… he would have loved it…" Eri managed.

Beat blinked, confused, but Eri was not stopping, words pouring out of her in a painful rush.

"He wanted to– to make this kind of things. I don't think he ever did. Not before… And then I thought I had hallucinated it, I was seeing them everywhere, but I was feeling so bad because Shiki…"

She shook her head. Even if she _knew_ that Shiki had been dead, she still couldn't remember it. Talking about these three weeks was difficult for her and they all knew it.

"I was so sure it was all in my head," she whispered. "That I was going mad with… the pain of losing someone, even if when I think about it I can only remember thinking Shiki would never talk to me again because I had fucked up, but…"  
"It was not in your head," Neku said, as gently as he knew how to.  
"It's so _unfair_!" she screamed.

A few people turned their head to stare; Beat and Neku moved to hide her from the crowd. She deserved whatever privacy she could get in the middle of a street.

"You know," Rhyme said, "I think you should come out and say hi."

Everyone turned to her, confused. She was looking at an opening in the heap, maybe two meters above ground level. There was no one there.

"Well, she did too," Rhyme added after a silence. "It has been years for everyone."

Neku suddenly understood what was happening.

"Rhyme, you sneaky…" he began.

She had hid from everyone that she was still seeing the UG. And _of course_ now he couldn't help but think back to all these times when she had seemed to stare at the crowds, or be lost in thought, looking at nothing in particular, and reframe it totally differently. But now was not the time.

"Come on, get down here," he called out to the void that was not empty. "She knows about the UG."

There was a silence, then a disgruntled Sho appeared next to Rhyme, arms crossed defensively.

"How many of you factoring hectopascals can _see_ it?" he grumbled.

Neku pointed at Rhyme. Eri stood, eyes wide.

"Sho…?"

Sho didn't meet her eyes.

"You… you've been there _all these years_?" Eri went on, tone slowly slipping toward hysteria. "And you _never_ visited?!"  
"I'm _dead_!" Sho countered.

Eri crossed the few steps separating them, slapped him, then began crying anew and threw herself at him, clinging with all her strength. Sho stayed frozen, a hint of panic in his eyes.

Neku realized here and there that he couldn't go on hating him.

"Hug her," he suggested. "That's a good start."

Sho slowly, hesitantly did so.

Everyone pretended not to see that he ended up clinging and crying too.

**Author's Note:**

> [Original tweet, with awesome art!](https://twitter.com/reokantasu/status/1328389654807269382)


End file.
